Pakistan’s business community should prepare itself to be part of CPEC-connecting new international value chains and invest in research and development to enhance its capacity to meet the challenges and reap the opportunities the Chinese initiative was set to create in the near future.

An MoU between Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), Tehran – a foreign policy think tank affiliated with Iran’s ministry of foreign affairs – was signed during a visit of a five-member IPIS delegation led by its President Dr Seyed Kazem

IPS, as part of its China Studies Program, hosted a two-member Chinese delegation comprising Dr. Zeng Xiangyu and Ji Jingfeng from Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), Sichuan University, Chengdu on July 28-29, 2016.

A roundtable titled “Rapprochement between Iran and the West: Strategic Implications for South Asia” was held on June 6, 2016 with Rana Muhammad Athar Javed, a veteran on Iranian studies and Director General of the Pakistan House – a Denmark based independent think tank with presence in UK and Pakistan – as the main speaker and Ambassador (r) Khalid Mehmood, chairman of the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) in chair.

The membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is critical for Pakistan to secure its defense, energy and economic goals. It has submitted its adherence to the NSG guidelines and has applied formally for its membership on 19 May 2016 but it will not associate NSG membership with talks on FMCT.

While it was the duty of the federal government that all the details related to CPEC should be made transparent and easily accessible besides ensuring that fruits of CPEC are shared equitably by all the parts and regions of the country, all stakeholders should refrain from stances and approaches that make this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity controversial and look like unviable.